In my previous foxtrot post I covered the basic walking and trotting patterns of the early foxtrot of the 1910s. These patterns are characterized by alternating series of slow (S) or quick (Q) steps, simple traveling interspersed with occasional sideways glides or half-turns, and consistently starting on the same foot (gentleman’s left, lady’s right). This simple foxtrot was complicated almost immediately by variations of rhythm, most notably the “quick-quick-slow” (QQS, or “one-and-two (pause)”) rhythm of the 19th-century two-step and polka. This post will discuss some of the variations introduced in the pre-1920 foxtrot as described by dancing masters Maurice Mouvet (1915) and Charles Coll (1919) and demonstrated by Clay Bassett and Catherine Elliott on film (1916).
Author: Susan de Guardiola
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Basic Walking & Trotting Patterns in the 1910s Foxtrot
“What particular resemblance does the gait of a fox have to this dance?”
— spectator watching trotters, as quoted in Maurice’s Art of Dancing, 1915It’s a reasonable question. The foxtrot evolved so rapidly after its debut in 1913-1914 that it can be difficult to sort out the earliest versions of the dance and derive an accurate picture of the foxtrot as danced in the 1910s.
Directions for dancing the foxtrot first began appearing in print in
1914. While it did not appear in Vernon and Irene Castle’s 1914 work, Modern Dancing, the Castles did include it that year in the booklet Victor Records for Dancing. Two brief descriptions were also published in F. L. Clenenden’s compendium, Dance Mad, also published in 1914, in St. Louis. In 1915, Maurice Mouvet published his description of the foxtrot in Maurice’s Art of Dancing, followed in 1919 by Charles Coll in Dancing Made Easy (link is to the 1922 reprint).In addition to these written sources, a brief silent film clip dated 1916 shows dance instructors Clay Bassett and Catherine Elliott demonstrating “The Much Talked About ‘Fox Trot’.”
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The Half & Half: Basic Traveling Steps
- Era: 1910s
The half and half, a hesitation waltz danced in 5/4 time, was one of those novelties that appeared and vanished quickly in 1914. There may be as many people alive now who know how to dance it as ever danced it in its own era! It is also handicapped by having very few surviving pieces of music in the right time signature. Today’s experienced historical social dancers can probably hum the eponymous “Half and Half” from memory. Sources describing the dance are equally difficult to come by; I have only three in my collection, though one of them, Dance Mad, generously provides four separate descriptions.
Click here to listen to a half and half tune in 5/4 time.
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Victorian Bustle Ball ~ New Haven, CT (March 29, 2008)
Coming up in just a couple of weeks:
On Saturday, March 29th, I will be precepting a small Victorian Ball for The Elegant Arts Society in New Haven, Connecticut. The theme is 1880s, the era of the bustle in ladies’ costume, but period costume is not required – come have fun dancing regardless! There will be live music from the wonderful dance musicians of Spare Parts and delicious refreshments made from Victorian recipes.
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Hesitate, Hesitate, Hesitate!
- Era: 1910s
- Dance: One-Step
In his 1914 manual, Dances of To-day, Philadelphia dancing master Albert W. Newman describes three different hesitations suitable for the one-step or Castle walk. In one description he notes that a hesitation is
…most practical, especially when one finds himself in a decidedly congested position, surrounded on all sides by merry dancers…it is the same as marking the time of the music, as the dancers execute the movement sur la place (on the spot).
Because of this practicality, hesitations are one of the first things I teach new dancers of the one-step. Here are Newman’s three hesitations for your dancing pleasure!
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Bits of Bijou: The Missing Middle of Durang’s 1848 Manual
Research on social dance history does not always involve direct work on specific dances, and occasionally I get diverted to detective work on related historical mysteries in different fields – music, language, biography, etiquette, publishing history, and more. Over the last few weeks, I have pursued a successful quest for some pages missing from an 1840s work by Charles Durang. The process of locating these pages illustrates some of the frustrations of working with 19th century sources and the care needed in studying them.
In her delightful overview of 19th-century dance and etiquette, From the Ballroom to Hell (paid link), Elizabeth Aldrich states that Durang (1796-1870) was a dancer at the Bowery Theatre who later taught dance in Philadelphia with his daughter Caroline and published at least four dance manuals. I started looking for a copy of Durang’s The Ball-Room Bijou and Art of Dancing as part of the research for a particular set of quadrilles and rapidly found myself in the midst of a publication puzzle.
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From the Tourdion to the Tango (February 17, 2008)
Rather last minute, but if any of my readers are in New York City, I will be doing some dance commentary at a concert by the New York Consort of Viols tomorrow afternoon at 3:00 p.m. in Manhattan. A flier is here. The music will primarily be 14th-18th century dance music as well as some period and modern pieces inspired by dance music. My comments will be popularly oriented rather than academic – brief introductory remarks in between pieces, not a lecture.
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How to Dance the Early Schottische
- Era: 1850s-1870s
A short, performance-oriented summary for those who want to skip the background and just go out and schottische. This is intended as a summary for those already generally familiar with couple dancing, not as a way for new dancers to learn from scratch; a live teacher is always to be preferred to a written description.
A fuller discussion of and list of sources for the schottische may be found in The Early Schottische.
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The New Yorker
Another guilty-pleasure disco-era line dance! This is one I’ve actually used regularly as an easy cool-down dance at the end of my own practices for the last couple of years. The source is The Official Guide to Disco Dance Steps by Jack Villari & Kathleen Sims Villari, 1978. There’s no special music for this or any other line dance, but I often use either Wild Cherry’s "Play That Funky Music, White Boy" or Donna Summers’ "Bad Girls". The only thing even mildly unusual about the dance itself is that instead of quarter-turns after each repetition there are half-turns.
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Corte Mad
- Era: 1910s
- Dance: tango
In the interest of not losing my mind, I’m going to be writing more
short posts interspersed with the longer articles that cover entire
dances. Today, a lovely little move for your 1910s tango.Many teachers labor under the impression that the “Argentine” consists of one dance only, which is not true, it is a dance of great variety of movements…The Argentine of today embraces about as many varieties as there are dancers, owing perhaps, to the natural desire of our American dancers to be “inventors.”
— F. Leslie Clendenen, Dance Mad, or the dances of the day, St. Louis, Missouri, 1914
